Persephone
by SirenoftheStorm
Summary: A poem I wrote back in high school that I found recently. Refers to the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone.


Persephone

She danced through the flowers once  
Once in a daydream; never again  
Once in the windblown morning.  
Bending to touch a strange flower, shadowy and fragrant,  
She fell ensnared by cunning enchantment  
And knew no more.  
A single petal drifted to the ground;  
A single word unspoken.  
_(no)_

Then the first journey, deep into the darkness.  
She had never seen the dark before,  
Not like this.  
Pervasive and thick,  
Alive...  
Frightening.  
Turmoil of water heaving,  
Carried across by a dark barge;  
The ancient boatman's vile visage smiling  
To see her wonder at the colors in the water  
To taste the fear on her gasp  
When she sees the hidden eyes within the depths.__

She is led to a throne of black velvet and bone.  
By servants she can't see  
A heavy crown is placed on her head  
Silver darkened black,  
Moonstones glowing on her brow...  
But there is no moon down here,  
Is there?  
_  
_He is beside her, before she even notices.  
Like nothing seen before,  
Strange, shadowy, and intense.  
She looks at him with her blue child's eyes,  
Trying to make  
Sense of it all.  
_You had me brought here.  
(yes)_

She is left alone a while, to befriend the shadows.  
She is waited on hand and foot.  
She does not understand  
And her senses evade  
Her. There's things here she almost can see

In these hollow halls. Whispers faded and unclear

And such hunger,  
She doesn't eat a single bite, not eating  
For fear that she will starve  
Time passes and he returns, the king,  
Her master in this shadow realm visits her  
Do you understand? He asks  
_(no)  
_She whispers. He sees that the food is  
untouched  
As is she  
Her golden-bright hair has never felt the warmth of a lovers breath  
Her blue eyes are undimmed but she is thin and weak  
Unsure of where she is  
A pale maiden glowing softly in the darkness  
His flower in the darkness  
Hades, give it back, the other gods reproach  
_(NO.)_

_  
_If you die of hunger you shall drift as a shade in my realm forever,  
He says.  
If you eat of the food, you must stay here for eternity.  
She does not know what eternity means,  
And right now it doesn't seem to matter  
Can anything be longer than forever?  
_(yes)  
_She picks up a pomegranate and  
Eats half a dozen seeds; trembling hands  
Steady. She puts the fruit down  
She is no longer hungry  
And realizes why. How she'll never be hungry again  
She can see the myriad shadows flowing in dancing patterns  
Across the textured walls like the blood of the stony deep.  
She hears ancient, rhythmic music echoing,  
As if the earth's heart is racing.  
Colors which flowers don't have are exploding through her mind  
Yet amidst all this,  
She is calm.  
She touches her crown once, almost unconsciously, and  
reaches for the kings hand  
I know you, she says  
_(Yes)  
You know me, child.  
You can see now.  
_  
Time seems to pass differently as she finds herself forgetting all but  
The shadowy mists of color and white fire,  
The music of the chasms in her blood,  
And the touch of her dark lover-  
Gentle as a phantom, binding her to him for all eternity.  
She thinks she has begun to understand eternity;  
_(no)  
_Maybe she will never understand.  
They come to take her away while she sleeps  
The other gods retrieving her with only a rustle as her sunbright hair  
Whispers pleas for help against the pillow  
And her king subconsciously hears her in his sleep  
Unwaking, his dreams become nightmares  
As they slip away with her, thieves or rescuers, grasping  
A flower picked from the dark earth  
To adorn their houses.

Where am I? She asks, waking, her eyes fading, dazzled by the sudden brightness  
You are home, she is told.  
_But I dont know you_. What she thought was home drifts away and shatters on the breeze,  
Shards of shadows and light and eternity.  
Do they understand eternity?  
_(No)  
_She didn't think they would. It's not something that even immortals comprehend  
Out here, so far from the earths center.  
She sits among the flowers and wonders why she is here,  
And feels uneasy. No mist, no warm cavern walls,  
Her eyes are blue as flowers but flowers don't smell the same as she remembered them.  
She only remembers in fragments,  
Sometimes, before she sleeps.  
No one understands her numbness and her fear.  
The blinding sun stabs daggers into her eyes.  
High birdsongs shrieking in the silence  
With no music in them._  
_She closes her eyes, begging her dark king to find her  
Before it's too late.  
When she opens them, he is there facing her keepers,  
Who debate her fate in harsh and angry voices.  
But his voice is smooth and quiet  
She reaches for Hades's hand  
And holds on tightly._  
_

Six seeds, six months. When she is gone, there will be winter,  
Bitter winter  
The unjust anger of the gods, hoping she might feel the bite of frost beneath the ground.  
… It is not cold underground but cool  
And warm at the same time, she thinks. When spring begins to arrive, her eyes  
Change, become gray and dark and begin to learn to bear the light  
As she step by step  
Emerges from the ground, leaving  
Her heart beating down there in the darkness.

... And when she reaches the daylit world she is greeted by her flowers,  
Yet she does not understand them anymore.  
She nurtures them gently, waiting  
And trying to remember the colors that await her  
But the harsh light fades the shadows  
Within her until she only knows that she is waiting for something.  
She remembers a fragment, maybe  
Sometimes, before she sleeps.  
They look at her with disappointment-  
She is not what they had expected.__

A haunted flower,  
Singing a deep, throbbing melody that no one understands.  
Longing only for her dark lover,  
Waiting only to sink into the fathomless mists.  
She danced through the flowers once  
In a dream, she thinks.  
All she knows now is that there are steps down to the shadows,  
And one by one they lead her back to her home.  
Her footsteps almost dancing  
On the ancient stone.  
A single petal drifts to the ground.  
_  
_The darkness is pervasive and intense when she  
Finally reaches the shore, and  
She sinks into the dark mist gracefully.  
He is beside her, before she even notices,  
Speaking her name in an intense voice-

Persephone

- and she is in his arms. Suddenly things are right again.  
They hold each other tightly and she whispers through her tears,  
_I know that name._  
His hand strokes her hair softly, possessively.  
Her voice is soft but strong.  
_I know you.  
(Yes.)_


End file.
